Quick backstory. I am 30 years old and have around 13 years of on-again-off-again opioid abuse. Started with pills when I was 17. Turned to IV Heroin when I was 22. Used for around 1-2 years I'd say. Ended up on 4-6mg of daily Suboxone for 5 years. Tapered off and quite Suboxone on Jan 14th, 2019. Starting messing around with Heroin again around 6 months later, only this time I limited my self to smoking rather than injecting. Only injected maybe 2-3 times on this last go around. Haven't allowed myself to become physically dependant on anything in a long time. Not since I was on Suboxone. Everyone in my immediate family has been affected by opioid addiction at some point. My deceased mother was an on-again-off-again addict. My father was a weekend IV user in the 80's. My half-brother was an IV user and has now been on 16mg Suboxone for a few years. His absentee mother recently died of an overdose and Fentanyl was found in her toxicology report. So that's that. Now on to my dad's situation.
Last week both my father and myself overdosed severely on a combination of Fentanyl, Heroin, and copious amounts of alcohol. I woke up on the floor of my room in a completely confused and panicked state, and I saw my dad lying face down on the floor next to me. I was basically paralyzed, unable to move and almost unable to speak or yell. I saw my dad snorting and making horrible sounds while unconscious on the floor. Obviously by this time, I started realizing that we had both smoked and subsequently OD’d on the illicit Fentanyl I had bought a few weeks prior. In a delirious, nightmarish state, I started muttering to my dad, “Dad, we’re dying. Dad we’re dying. We’re dying. Wake up”. Realizing I needed to get help, I tried to get up but had no strength to do so. I tried to crawl to a phone, but I could not do so. In a fit of rage, frustration, and adrenaline, I was able to muster all my strength and pull myself up onto a chair with wheels. I was able to barely roll myself over to my dad’s old flip-style cell phone and call 911. I don’t think I would have been capable of operating a smartphone. The paramedics came and I couldn’t get up off the floor to answer the door. Luckily the door was unlocked and they could hear me. They gave us both Narcan and loaded us up into ambulances. They said my father was being combative and I half-jokingly said “just smack him around a little bit then”. Little did I know what they meant by “combative”. He was in a hyper confused state and having severe tremors.
Fast forward 10 days and I have been out of the hospital with only minor injuries. With the exception of having to be on antibiotics for a very painful arm infection (caused by extremely elevated CK levels), I am doing okay physically. My dad however is still in the hospital with brain damage. He is extremely confused, cannot swallow, cannot really talk or communicate in any kind of normal way, and is having severe “tremors”. Apparently, he DOES know his name and he DOES know what city he’s in. But the tremors are so bad that the nurses said it was “scary” the first night he was there. Because of Covid, they’ve only allowed me a single 15-min visit, and that was right when I was being discharged from the hospital we were both in. The doctors are unable to perform an MRI on his brain because he will not stop tremoring. They performed a CtScan but said it was a poorly conducted test because again, he would not stop tremoring. They said that they did not see anything on the CtScan. The neurologist is puzzled as to why he has not gotten any better. I thought perhaps he fell into a diabetic coma during the time we were down, but the docs sort of ruled that out. After talking with my neighbors, I calculated that we were unconscious on the floor for around 8-12 hours. I don’t even know how that is possible.
At first, the doctors assumed his tremors were due to opioid withdrawal. But I informed them, he is not DEPENDANT on opioids or any other class of drug. He is an occasional user and only gets high on nights when we are both drunk enough to make really stupid decisions. This usually happens like once a week but I quite often go 2 weeks or more without smoking anything. He does not take any Benzodiazepines or other addictive meds. He usually takes a very small dose of Ambien (zolpidem) before bed, and he occasionally takes muscle relaxants that he is prescribed, but only small doses and not every night.
There is so much information to write, my brain is fried and I have almost no ability to accurately communicate and summarize my thoughts anymore. I just want to know if ANYBODY has ever seen an overdose case that has resulted in obscure brain damage and uncontrollable tremors. If so, please chime in. Any info would be greatly appreciated. In fact, if you supply me with valuable information that leads to any kind of breakthroughs for my dad’s condition, I will get in touch with you and PAY YOU a cash reward. I am that desperate and LITERALLY in psychological hell. I’ve been having suicidal thoughts and thoughts of using. But I am staying with extended family in another state for emotional support and I am not using and not drinking. I am doing research every day and trying to do everything I can to see how I can help the doctors help my dad. My dad is my world, and I am his. We are very, very close and this experience has literally destroyed my mind and soul. The only thing I can do is spend ½ of my time doing research / posting to forums, and the other ½ of my time trying to distract myself from reality. If I start to dwell on the potential horrors of my dad’s condition, I will go batshit mental and be rendered useless.
So please, any help would be appreciated. Thank you.
Also, here are the medications my dad takes on a regular basis:
Hypertension:
Diltiazem 240mg (CD) – 1x daily
Carvedilol 12.5mg – 2x daily
Hydrochlorothiazide 25mg – 1x daily
Losartan 100mg – 1x daily
Peripheral Neuropathy & Sleep:
Amitriptyline 25 - 50mg – 1x daily (before bed)
Zolpidem 2.5 – 5mg – 1x daily (before bed)
Cyclobenzaprine 10mg or Tizanidine 4mg – As needed for pain and/or sleep
Asthma:
Ventolin – 2 puffs as needed
Diabetes:
Lantus – 50 units per day (1 shot)
Humalog – 45 units per day (3 shots daily, 15 units per shot)
Metformin 1,000mg – 2x daily
Last week both my father and myself overdosed severely on a combination of Fentanyl, Heroin, and copious amounts of alcohol. I woke up on the floor of my room in a completely confused and panicked state, and I saw my dad lying face down on the floor next to me. I was basically paralyzed, unable to move and almost unable to speak or yell. I saw my dad snorting and making horrible sounds while unconscious on the floor. Obviously by this time, I started realizing that we had both smoked and subsequently OD’d on the illicit Fentanyl I had bought a few weeks prior. In a delirious, nightmarish state, I started muttering to my dad, “Dad, we’re dying. Dad we’re dying. We’re dying. Wake up”. Realizing I needed to get help, I tried to get up but had no strength to do so. I tried to crawl to a phone, but I could not do so. In a fit of rage, frustration, and adrenaline, I was able to muster all my strength and pull myself up onto a chair with wheels. I was able to barely roll myself over to my dad’s old flip-style cell phone and call 911. I don’t think I would have been capable of operating a smartphone. The paramedics came and I couldn’t get up off the floor to answer the door. Luckily the door was unlocked and they could hear me. They gave us both Narcan and loaded us up into ambulances. They said my father was being combative and I half-jokingly said “just smack him around a little bit then”. Little did I know what they meant by “combative”. He was in a hyper confused state and having severe tremors.
Fast forward 10 days and I have been out of the hospital with only minor injuries. With the exception of having to be on antibiotics for a very painful arm infection (caused by extremely elevated CK levels), I am doing okay physically. My dad however is still in the hospital with brain damage. He is extremely confused, cannot swallow, cannot really talk or communicate in any kind of normal way, and is having severe “tremors”. Apparently, he DOES know his name and he DOES know what city he’s in. But the tremors are so bad that the nurses said it was “scary” the first night he was there. Because of Covid, they’ve only allowed me a single 15-min visit, and that was right when I was being discharged from the hospital we were both in. The doctors are unable to perform an MRI on his brain because he will not stop tremoring. They performed a CtScan but said it was a poorly conducted test because again, he would not stop tremoring. They said that they did not see anything on the CtScan. The neurologist is puzzled as to why he has not gotten any better. I thought perhaps he fell into a diabetic coma during the time we were down, but the docs sort of ruled that out. After talking with my neighbors, I calculated that we were unconscious on the floor for around 8-12 hours. I don’t even know how that is possible.
At first, the doctors assumed his tremors were due to opioid withdrawal. But I informed them, he is not DEPENDANT on opioids or any other class of drug. He is an occasional user and only gets high on nights when we are both drunk enough to make really stupid decisions. This usually happens like once a week but I quite often go 2 weeks or more without smoking anything. He does not take any Benzodiazepines or other addictive meds. He usually takes a very small dose of Ambien (zolpidem) before bed, and he occasionally takes muscle relaxants that he is prescribed, but only small doses and not every night.
There is so much information to write, my brain is fried and I have almost no ability to accurately communicate and summarize my thoughts anymore. I just want to know if ANYBODY has ever seen an overdose case that has resulted in obscure brain damage and uncontrollable tremors. If so, please chime in. Any info would be greatly appreciated. In fact, if you supply me with valuable information that leads to any kind of breakthroughs for my dad’s condition, I will get in touch with you and PAY YOU a cash reward. I am that desperate and LITERALLY in psychological hell. I’ve been having suicidal thoughts and thoughts of using. But I am staying with extended family in another state for emotional support and I am not using and not drinking. I am doing research every day and trying to do everything I can to see how I can help the doctors help my dad. My dad is my world, and I am his. We are very, very close and this experience has literally destroyed my mind and soul. The only thing I can do is spend ½ of my time doing research / posting to forums, and the other ½ of my time trying to distract myself from reality. If I start to dwell on the potential horrors of my dad’s condition, I will go batshit mental and be rendered useless.
So please, any help would be appreciated. Thank you.
Also, here are the medications my dad takes on a regular basis:
Hypertension:
Diltiazem 240mg (CD) – 1x daily
Carvedilol 12.5mg – 2x daily
Hydrochlorothiazide 25mg – 1x daily
Losartan 100mg – 1x daily
Peripheral Neuropathy & Sleep:
Amitriptyline 25 - 50mg – 1x daily (before bed)
Zolpidem 2.5 – 5mg – 1x daily (before bed)
Cyclobenzaprine 10mg or Tizanidine 4mg – As needed for pain and/or sleep
Asthma:
Ventolin – 2 puffs as needed
Diabetes:
Lantus – 50 units per day (1 shot)
Humalog – 45 units per day (3 shots daily, 15 units per shot)
Metformin 1,000mg – 2x daily
For you pal.